Expatriation has changed over the years. Pioneers have always moved and worked across the world, looking for different or more opportunities. What we, HR consultants and coach, see today is the increase of people with the willingness to link their own career with an international environment rather than with one company only. People decide to live and work abroad, without waiting for their company’s career plans. They want to drive their story.

Let me share with you what I have observed since 2005 in Singapore, beginning of my own expatriation:

- the French population has tripled in 8 years

- from talking about their expat conditions, expats now compare their local conditions.

- from discussing about the next expatriation, they question themselves about their choice to stay or not in Singapore.

In a sense, expatriation has also become synonymous with localization!

I had recently the opportunity to attend a conference from Dr. Yvonne Mc Nulty *

Based on her academic research, she explained that

- a new concept has emerged: "the international employees". She has observed this trend in Asia: people manage their career within Asia rather than within a company. They want to work and evolve in a growing and developing market. Most of the biggest cities in the world are going to be in Asia in the next 20 years. So will be the economic activity.

- companies might lose their retention tools with the end of the expat packages. Cost reduction for companies will result in a decrease of the psychological contract’s impact (strong link which takes place between a company and its expats with the benefits of the packages).

A.Beneton

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